Hello Brian, and thank you for taking the plunge - posting your first topic!
I'm going to enjoy this one. It will allow us to explore a whole bunch of features.
We can take it all one step at a time. Perhaps other members will join in the things I'm about to explain, and we will all enjoy the exercises.
Thanks Toby for explaining your method. A question to you Toby. Do you have one Gardener profile and three garden areas in that one garden:
Garden Area 1= Begonia Patch
Garden Area 2= Vegetable garden
Garden Area 2= Toby Garden
Is that your set up?
That is absolutely fine.
Back to Brian.
First, to record your records, I would recommend you create a Specimen profile for each item.
If you buy a plant, thats a specimen. If you grow a batch of plants from seed, they are also specimens.
You can have any number of specimens for any one Plant Profile. Thus, they all share the same Plant Profile information.
However, each Specimen has its own exclusive data set, to record the "detailed" things Brian has mentioned.
I will explain how Events work with your specimen profiles, to do exactly what you have described.
Events
First, we need to have look at whats set up in our plant care definitions.
Click Files tab on Menu and start GA011
You'll see some items listed. One is Sow.
Double click on Sow
Screen GA011S02 appears.
Note that the "Done" description is Sowed.
When youve "done" something, that is an "Event" in IG terminology.
For your situation, lets add a new Profile
Get back to initial screen (GA011S01)
Click Add new Topic
In screen GA011S02, enter Germinate in To do description and Germinated in Done Description.
Leave Trigger Pot History unchecked (thats for Bonsai Genie users)
Click the Add button to save your changes
Now lets work with GA029.
Now, GA029 is a bit scary to begin with, because its gone through a lot of development as I worked with it. What starts of as a simple screen can get cluttered with extra options, so someone coming in on the finished article will find it a bit off-putting.
Just take the straight and narrow to begin with, and like me, you will gradually start looking for more. As I used it, I was able to add those little enhancements and now you have a program packed with "bells and whistles".
First, locate a plant in your database, using the Search options, bottom Left of screen.
In the list of plants, click to select the plant you wish to work with.
Now click the Add a Specimen button
Screen GA100S23 appears
First decision. Is this Specimen profile to be treated as a Batch of plants?
Heres the rules:
Leave the Batch Reference blank if its a single specimen.
You can also leave the Batch Reference blank if the specimen record is for a number of plants, or a batch of seedlings.
So when should you enter something in the Batch Reference field?
Simple. If somewhere along the growing process you wish to SPLIT a batch, then you should enter a Batch Reference.
When you enter a Batch Reference, you create a different type of Specimen Record, with additional options.
To begin with, lets keep it simple. I'd recommend you leave the Batch Reference blank, even for a tray of seed, or seedlings . You can change it to a batch later if you wish.
Enter as much info as you like. In the example youve given, enter Supplier info.
Select a Gardener and Garden Area (this can be change later)
Click Add
The initial screen GA029S01 re-appears.
With the same plant selected, click the This Plant button,under the heading Specimens in this Garden
Your specimen will be listed.
Note that its spread over two lines.
The first line is the PLANT name
The second line is the SPECIMEN name
Now to add some Events
Double click the line with the Specimen name
Screen GA100S23 appears
Click Specimen Events button
Click Add an event button
Screen GA100S26 appears
Click the Events pop-up
You'll see Sowed and Germinated (as added in GA011)
Select Sowed
Use the Calendar control to select the date the seed were Sowed
In the Notes about this event, type in anyting you like.
Click Add
Screen GA100S23 re-appears
You can repeat the above to add another event for "Germinated"
Note:
View a list of specimens in the initial screen GA029S01
By default settings, note how the LAST event for that specimen is appended to the specimen data on the line.
End of lesson for tonight
Next:
We'll discuss the numerous options to deal with the plants list in your garden areas "Year on Year".
